Foil of Hamlet

Hamlet is dominated by an emotion which is inexpressible, because it is in excess of the facts as they appear.... We should have to understand things which Shakespeare did not understand himself."

T.S. Eliot
(Hamlet and His Problems)

In the play Hamlet [Titles] by William Shakespeare the cast of main characters use the support given to them by the foils to enhance the play. A foil is a minor character who by simulations [?] and differences reveals character, and who, as an element of plot, is there for the more important character to talk to (vevra [sic] ). Such an example is Laertes is a foil to Hamlet. [SS -1] [Is the last sentence in this paragraph the thesis?]

Before the events of the play Ophelia[,] the daughter of Polonius and sister of Laertes, tells us that Hamlet was a model courtier, soldier, and scholar, ["?]The glass of fashion and the mould of form, Th’ observed of all observers."( pg 676) [Citation] With the death of his farther [sic] and the hasty remarriage of his mother to mother [sic & sloppy] to his uncle, throws Hamlet into a frustrated state were [where-H50] he lashes out at evil he sees and then relapse into a suicidal misery. [SS] It is in the [this?] state of mind that he meets the ghosts [more than one?] of his father. When he meets the ghost he isn’t afraid of the ghost but instead wants to confront the ghost face to face. It is at this point in the play were [that] Hamlet finds out that his uncle murdered his father[.] [How does this paragraph relate to foils?]

A foil to Hamlet is Laertes. Laertes who likes Hamlet [a sloppy error which sends the reader into wondering about homosexuality in the play] has returned to Elsinor because of King Hamlet’s death. Laertes is a young man whose good instincts have been somewhat unclear by the concern of his superficial [??????], which he has learned from his…...

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...Hamlet Notes
Tragedy is the downfall of a man because of a weakness in his personality. This weakness leaves him unable to negotiate successfully the conflict that he experiences in the outside world. Consequently, when he encounters evil, he is unable to make the right decision.
A tragic hero has a moment of insight in which he realises his error. However, this insight comes too late for him to address his sillinesses/error. The tragic hero always dies.
The key to understanding this play is a close and insightful study of the soliloquies in the play.
Act 1 Scene 1( pg 3-13)
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Act 1 Scene 2(pg 13-31)
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...and Origin of Hamlet
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...Decay in Hamlet
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The canker galls the infants of the spring
Too oft before their buttons be disclosed,
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Not where he eats, but where he is eaten. A
certain convocation of politic worms are e’en at
him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet. We
fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves
for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is
but variable service -- two dishes, but to one table.
That’s the end. (IV, iii, 22-28)
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...established.
Written during the first part of the seventeenth century (probably in 1600 or 1601),Hamlet was probably first performed in July 1602. It was first published in printed form in 1603 and appeared in an enlarged edition in 1604.
Hamlet is faced with the difficult task of correcting an injustice that he can never have sufficient knowledge of a dilemma that is by no means unique, or even uncommon. And while Hamlet is fond of pointing out questions that cannot be answered because they concern supernatural and metaphysical matters, the play as a whole chiefly demonstrates the difficulty of knowing the truth about other people—their guilt or innocence, their motivations, their feelings, their relative states of sanity or insanity. The world of other people is a world of appearances, and Hamlet is, fundamentally, a play about the difficulty of living in that world.
Plot Overview
Hamlet is the prince of Denmark, his father was the king but he died. Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius has taken over as king and married Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude.
At the beginning of the play, a ghost walks the ramparts of Elsinore Castle in Denmark. Discovered first by a pair of watchmen, then by the scholar Horatio, the ghost resembles the recently deceased King Hamlet, whose brother Claudius has inherited the throne and married the king’s widow, Queen Gertrude. When Horatio and the watchmen bring Prince Hamlet, the son of Gertrude and the dead king, to see the ghost, it speaks to him,......

...Nick Greco
English 12
Ms. Norton
5/18/2014
Hamlet Essay
In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, there are many central ideas. Two central ideas that are developed in Hamlet are revenge and action vs. inaction. Throughout the play, Hamlet has trouble making decisions even though he is set on avenging his father's death. These central ideas interact and build on one another over the course of the play.
Hamlet expresses revenge when he says, “Let not the royal bed of Denmark be a couch for luxury and damned incest” (Act 1.5, lines 109-110). Hamlet is saying how he wont let his uncle, Claudius get away with killing King Hamlet and marrying his mother. Hamlet displays action vs. inaction when he says, “Like a John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause” (Act 2.2, line 595). This means that Hamlet has not done anything to get revenge on Claudius yet. Revenge and action vs. inaction build on each other because revenge drives Hamlets decisions to either take action or not throughout the play. At the end of the play revenge interacts with action vs. inaction when Hamlet finally decides to take action. After Hamlet sees Fortinbras’s courage, he decides to take revenge when he fences with Laertes. Hamlet takes action by finally killing Claudius when the chance presents itself.
In Hamlet, Shakespeare uses many literary devices. One literary device is foil. Fortinbras is a foil to Hamlet because Hamlet is a coward and indecisive at times unlike Fortinbras. Both characters are......

...Story of Hamlet in Hamlet
Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet has one outstanding character, namely the protagonist Hamlet. His character is so complex that this essay will scarcely present an adequate portrayal of his character.
John Russell Brown in “Soliloquies and Other Wordplay Let the Audience Share Some of Hamlet’s Thoughts” explains the interplay of dialogue, soliloquies and narrative in Hamlet’s role:
By any reckoning Hamlet is one of the most complex of Shakespeare’s characters, and a series of soliloquies is only one of the means which encourage the audience to enter imaginatively into his very personal and frightening predicament. The play’s narrative is handled so that a prolonged two-way chase is sustained between him and the king, during which the audience knows more than either one of them and so thinks ahead and anticipates events. In interplay with Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Polonius, and perhaps with Claudius, Gertrude and Ophelia, Hamlet has asides to draw attention to what dialogue cannot express(55-56).
Marchette Chute describes the opening scene of the drama: “For two nights in succession, just as the bell strikes the hour of one, a ghost has appeared on the battlements, a figure dressed in complete armor and with a face like that of the dead king of Denmark, Hamlet’s father. [. . .] The hour comes, and the ghost walks” (35). Horatio and Marcellus exit the ramparts of Elsinore intending to enlist the aid of......

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Shakespeare’s uncertainty and concern about the relationships between men and women remains relevant today, allowing me to empathise with the female characters, Gertrude and Ophelia. Though society’s treatment of women has improved, some inequality still remains, enabling us as modern responders to understand Shakespeare’s portrayal of women’s experiences and their loyalty towards their patriarchal figures. Hamlets mistreatment of Ophelia, “God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another,” uses ploce to highlight his hypocrisy considering the “antic disposition” he puts on. Similarly, the vulgar comment, “nothing ... between maids' legs,” goes unchallenged, emphasising how Ophelia’s expected obedience prevents her defying a male’s authority. This portrayal represents Shakespeare’s patriarchal values, emphasising the seemingly eternal struggle for gender......